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DEOPARA INSCRIPTION OF VIJAYASENA.
305
(1.) The causeway leading to the Arjuna-Barika, built by the Chaulukya king, has been rebuilt by the prince....
(2.) In the month of Chaitra, during the bright half, on the first day, a Thursday, in the year (marked) by the Nandas, the eight and the kings, 1689, the eulogy was writ. ten again.
The eulogy was written by the Nagara Brahman, Joshi Vishnujika, son of Veni. May it be well.
William
XXXV.-DEOPARA STONE INSCRIPTION OF VIJAYASENA.
BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, PA.D., C.I.E., GÖTTINGEN. The stone, a piece of basalt carefully polished on the upper surface, which bears this inscription, was discovered about twenty-five years ago by Mr. O. T. Metcalfe, amidst a number of large blocks of stone, in a dense jungle near the village of Deopara,' in the Rajshahi District of the Province of Bengal, and it is now in the India Museum at Caloutta.
The inscription contains 32 lines. The slab measures 3' 2' by l'of', and the writing covers a space of 9' 74' broad by 1' B' high, and is throughout in a state of perfect preservation. The size of the letters is about '. The characters belong to the northern class of alphabets, and may be described as a Bengali variety of the northern alphabet of the eleventh or twelfth century. Among the letters which differ from the ordinary Nagari of the period, I may especially point out the initial i and e, the single consonants khit. th, t, ph, bh, r and I, and the conjuncts ksh, ji, and hm. Besides, it may be noted that the letter r, which before another consonant is ordinarily denoted by the superscript sign, is written on the line in the conjuncts rog, run, and rth, e.g., in -Dargge, line 6, -akirnnaKarnnáta-, line 8, and tirtha- and pratyarthi., line 12; and that the sign of the ada. graha is employed four times, to indicate the elision of the vowel a, e.g., in dadhe 'pasadam, line 13. The language of the inscription is Sanskrit, and, with the exception of the introductory or om namah Sivaya, the whole is in verse. As regards orthography, the only points calling for remark are, that b is througbout denoted by the sign for ; that the (dental) is employed instead of anustára in mansa, line 8; and that a final » has been left unchanged before an initial j in dhimán jaghána, line 17.
The inscription has been carefully and beautifully engraved by Sala påņi, styled rdnaka and described as the crest-jewel of the guild of Varendra artists,' a son of Bșihaspati, grandson of Manadása, and great-grandson of Dharma (verse 36); and it was composed by the poet U mapatidhara (verse 85). In my opinion, there can be no doubt that this is the very poet of whom Jayadeva is speaking in his Gitagovinda, i, 4, when he says odchah pallavayaty- Umapatidharaḥ, Umapatidhara makes the words sprout, i.e., his diction is verbose;' for this short characteristic well fits the poem
The inscription has been published before, with translation which fairly gives the general sense of the original, by Mr. O. T. Metcalfe, and introductory reunnrks on the Bena kings of Bengal, by Dr. RajendralAl Mitrs, in the Journal 41. Soc. Deng., vol. XXXIV, pert I, pp. 128-164. I now redit it from an excellent impression taken by Dr. Burgess. (The village of Deopárd is in the GodAgari than in the west of the Rampur purgap. GodAgari is on the Ganges, Lat. 24° 28' N., Long. 88° 23' E.; and on sheet 120 of the Indian Atlas, there is a Daopoor' north-north-east of Godagri, but no Deopárd is marked near the place; there is another. Deopoor,' 18 miles east from Goddgdri in Lat. 24° 27', Loug. 88° 34' E.-J. B.)
Varendit is identified with that part of Bengal which is now called Raje&i (or Rajadhi). See, e.g., Lassen's Indiache Alterthumskunde, vol. III, p. 748.
